The increasing use of cellular telephones and other wireless devices in the recent years has made the enforcement of federal regulations on airborne use of such devices difficult. One recent study suggests that the unauthorized use of cellular phones aboard commercial flights in the Eastern United States occurs with a frequency of one to four voice calls per flight. B. Strauss, M. G. Morgan, J. Apt, and D. D. Stancil, “Unsafe at any airspeed?,” IEEE Spectrum, March 2006. The easy availability of inexpensive wireless GPS tracking products in recent years has also enabled real-time package tracking easy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that wireless monitoring equipment is regularly placed inside packages aboard cargo airlines, by shippers of high-value goods for real-time monitoring purposes.
The increasing use of cell phone technology within an aircraft has given rise to several safety concerns. Notable among these is the concern that cellular phones may impose an electromagnetic interference (EMI) risk to the electronic components of commercial aircraft. This concern has resulted in several federal regulations designed to broadly prohibit the operation of cellular phones aboard aircraft. These federal regulations prohibit the use of wireless devices any time an aircraft is not in contact with the ground. In passenger airlines, these regulations are typically enforced by means of cabin announcements and passenger monitoring. However, in some cases, these methods may be inadequate. Additionally, these enforcement mechanisms may not be suitable for cargo airlines. This difficulty in enforcement may make a cargo carrier an unwitting accomplice in the violation of the federal regulations, since the operator often does know whether the cargo contains wireless tracking devices. With the widespread use of cellular phones and other wireless devices onboard aircraft, and the difficulty of enforcing regulations restricting such use, it would be beneficial to automate compliance with the applicable federal regulations.